The Fast Food Restaurant That Offers A Baked Potato As A Side

Most fast food chains have something specific going for them ... a gimmick, if you will. Chipotle is the fast food restaurant that cooks meat sous vide, for instance. Burger King has the "flame-grilled" beef. And Wendy's? Well, it has baked potatoes. Since 1983, a time when customer preferences often demanded a lower-fat alternative to those french fries we love to munch, Wendy's has offered the spuds. While other fast food competitors have tried to get in the game — Burger King put baked potatoes on its menu for a hot minute in the 1990s — most nationwide chains don't want to invest in the separate, expensive convection ovens necessary to bake potatoes. Prepping them is also a long process that can be an awkward fit in a fast food landscape. Some regional chains (and regional pockets of bigger names) offer baked potatoes but availability is, on the whole, sparse.

As a result, Wendy's baked potatoes hold a unique, even quirky position in the pantheon of fast food offerings. It's an oasis of heartiness that's low on grease when you are in the mood for something filling and wholesome but don't have the time or patience to whip up a recipe for loaded twice-baked potatoes yourself. When combined with a humble order of nuggets or one of the chain's value burgers, a baked potato can be part of a pretty square meal. And, best of all, Wendy's has you covered on baked potato variety.

Currently, there are five permutations of baked potatoes described on the Wendy's website: plain, sour cream and chive, cheese, bacon and cheese, and chili cheese. Anecdotal reports claim that there used to be a broccoli and cheese baked potato, but it seems that hasn't been offered (in America, anyway) in some years. While prices vary by market, the cost of a Wendy's potato ranges from around $3.19 for a plain spud to $5.39 for the loaded bacon and cheese or chili cheese options. With macro values ranging from 270 to 500 calories apiece, that's objectively a nutritionally dense food product for your money.

While you might want to think twice about ordering a Wendy's Frosty due to dubious sanitation at some restaurants (though that varies quite a lot), you can't deny that Frosties and french fries are easy foods to eat in the car. Meanwhile, a baked potato demands a knife-and-fork experience that requires both time and space to eat. For consumers, that may be the only downside to Wendy's unique side dish as it definitely removes the "fast" from "fast food." Unless, of course, you are one dry-witted X user, who posted, "Thinking about getting a Wendy's baked potato and just walking down the street eating it with one hand like a chive and starch taco." In which case, don't let us stop you, king.